While the Chorus begins this strophe with a rhetorical question meant to affirm its perception that nobody can be more piteous than Oidipous, ἀθλιώτερος can also imply a moral judgment, so that the Chorus might be heard to suggest that nobody merits punishment more than he. Furthermore, if the audience supposes this ambiguity to be yet another instance of the god’s speaking through a mortal vehicle, the god will seem to be directing the audience to consider Oidipous’s blameworthiness. [Gd] Indeed, the god who appears all along to have been present in Thebes and capable of speaking at will through the mouths of Thebans now seems to be present in the Athenian Theater of Dionysos and to be directing his words straight to the assembled Athenian citizenry. [Gt-a] Who is known to be wretched? Oidipous has left the stage with the knowledge that his worst fears have been realized. Iokaste also comes quickly to mind; unless she has already killed herself, she now knows that her belief that she could defeat prophecy and the god behind it through her own efforts is false. Since Athens has been acting on this same belief, its efforts can be presumed doomed to similar failure, and when its failure is made manifest, Athens will join Iokaste and Oidipous in the measure both of its misery and the justice to which it has been subjected. [Mea] [P] [Mw] [Aj]